The Satin Sash

“I didn’t say it was easy, sweetheart. But I do know my Toni can do that and more.”

After checking in at the hotel, Heath rode out to see the land that had caught Grey’s eye. A rolling hill with a partial view of the English Bay and the imposing Art Deco-style Burrard Street Bridge. Lush and green, it was an impressive place, from any standpoint.

Grey wanted to build a hotel here. The wider, sweeping hill next to it offered more. A view of the entire city skyline. But it wasn’t for sale, of course. The most beautiful never is. The most beautiful is taken. Always taken.

After a leisurely walk around, smelling the dampened earth and maple, lost in his thoughts, Heath got in a cab to go to their construction site at a residential area in Cole Harbor. He’d been gazing out the window for what felt like hours when he spotted her.

She stood with a group of women at a corner—women dressed to entice a man; women ready, it seemed, to get down to the dirty. She was dressed like a nurse. A nurse. Someone to lick his wounds. Someone that wasn’t her.

Heath halted the car, popped his head out the open door. “Get in.”

All heads swiveled in his direction, and she stepped away from the group and righted her little white hat, her heels tapping on the sidewalk. “Can you afford me?”

“I said get in.”

Raven-haired and willowy, she shouted something at the “girls” and slid into the cab. She pulled a piece of gum out of her mouth and jammed it into the ashtray, rolled out a couple of sexy words to him, finishing with the word lover. She had glossy red lips and vivid red nails to match the tiny cross on the breast of her dress.

She would do. Anyone would do.

He didn’t speak to her as he let her into his hotel room. She had been talking during the ride, but he hadn’t listened to a word. His eyes were blurry. They stung. His throat felt cramped and his heart numb.

A fuck. That was all he was. A fuck. Grey held her, stroked her, supported her. He bought her earrings. He washed her hair. Heath just fucked her.

I want to be Grey. Dear god, I want to.

The nurse kicked her heels off and he felt her arms go around his neck. “What’s it gonna be, tough guy?”

Her fingers were fiddling with his hair, and it bothered him. Pulling them back, he leaned on the door, swallowing back the bile as he unfastened his jeans. “Blow it, fuck it, or play with it. Just do me.”

Helping him slide his jeans partway down, she weighed his newly bared testicles, fondled his dick. “Oooh, you’re big. Try to get a little hard for me, huh, big guy?”

Heath clamped his eyes shut when he felt the stinging moisture there. Good god, what was this? The pills.The plane. Leaving her.

“I’m not feeling well,” he said thickly.

“Oh, honey. Sweetie. Let Nurse Tina help you. I’ll make you hot for me.What do you like? Let’s get these off you first.”

Her hands got busy and he let her strip him fully of hi

s shoes, his jeans, his socks. Her hand moved to stroke at his penis, trying to work it up. He felt her lips graze the tip.

With his head back against the wall, he tried to suck air into his lungs, feeling suffocated. He tried to picture this woman’s breasts. Her red mouth around his cock. Something to entice him, arouse him.

His cock was a limp, heavy weight in the nurse’s hands. What have you done to me, Antonia?

He cursed as he grabbed her cap and a handful of hair, noting that it was dry and stiff, unlike Toni’s virgin tresses. “Don’t,” he said and hauled her up.

“Let me try a bit—”

“Just don’t. Here. I’m sorry.” He bent to his jeans and slipped several large bills into her hand. “Go.”

“We could try something—”

“Go!”

She fumbled with the door, and she was gone. A woman he could have had, even if paid for, even if only for an hour. Gone. He gritted his teeth. “Fucking fool!”

He’d been curious? He’d wondered what it felt like to care for someone? He was an idiot. Caring was not for him. He had stopped caring years ago, years ago, and now he remembered why. Nobody wanted him to give a shit.